Patty and Azalea eBook

Patty had sent Winnie off, feeling that she must hold
Fleurette in her arms for some time, in order to realise
that she was safe from the whirling winds of that
awful cyclone!

When Bill appeared, Patty began at once, and launched
forth a full description of the picture play, and
of Azalea’s and Fleurette’s parts in it.

Farnsworth sat looking at her, his blue eyes full
of a contented admiration. To this simple-minded,
big-hearted man, his wife and child represented the
whole world. All he had, all he owned, he valued
only for the pleasure it might mean to them.

“Darling,” he said, as she finished the
tale, “what do you think about it all?”

“Mona’s been talking to you!” Patty
cried, with sudden intuition.

“What! How do you know? You clair-voyant!”

“Of course I know,” and Patty wagged a
wise head at him. “First, because you’re
not sufficiently surprised,—­she told you
all about it! And second, because you’re
not furious at Azalea! Mona has talked you around
to her way of thinking,—­which is, that Azalea
is a genius,—­and that—­”

“That Fleurette is another! Think of being
on the screen at the tender age of six months!”

“You’re a wretch! you’re a monster!
you’re a—­a—­dromedary!”

Patty was feeling decidedly better about the whole
matter. Having sat for nearly an hour, holding
and fondling her idolised child, she realised that
whatever Fleurette had gone through, she was safe
now,—­and that whatever was to be done to
Azalea by way of punishment, was more Bill’s
affair than hers.

“You don’t care two cents for your wonder-child!
Your own little buttercup,—­your daffy-downdilly
baby!” she cried, in pretended reproof, and
then Farnsworth took Fleurette and tossed her about
until she squealed with glee.

“Oh, I guess we’ll keep her,” he
said, as he handed her back to her mother’s
arms. “She’s the paragon baby of the
whole world, even if I don’t appreciate her.”

“Oh, you do! you do!” exclaimed
Patty, remorseful now at having teased him. “And
now, Sweet William, what’s your idea of
a right and proper punishment for Cousin Azalea?”

“That’s a matter for some thought,”
he responded, mindful of Mona’s words.
“Look here, Patty, quite aside from Fleurette’s
connection with this case,—­what’s
your opinion of Zaly as a ‘movie’ star?”

“Our relative, I should advise her to
go in for the thing seriously; but,—­I may
be over-conservative,—­even snobbish, but
I do hate to have our cousin’s portrait all
over the fences and ashbarrels, and in all the Sunday
papers, and—­”

“I don’t mind that publicity so much as
I do the possible effects on Azalea’s life.
I don’t know that the career of a ‘movie’
star is as full of dangerous pitfalls as the theatrical
line, but—­I hate to see Azalea subjected
to them,—­for her own sake.”